Loveraj Singh Dharamshaktu was heading a team comprising three ONGC employees, Yogendar Garbiyal, N Jagoi and Rahul Jarngal, who also scaled peak with him.

BSF officer Loveraj Singh Dharamshaktu became the first Indian mountaineer to conquer the world’s highest peak Mount Everest for a record sixth time on Saturday.

“As per GPS statistics, Loveraj ascended the Everest at 0610 hours,” said his wife Reena Kaushal who heads the Uttarakhand government’s mountaineering institute at Munsiyari and who is the first Indian woman to ski to the South Pole and unfurl the tricolour in 2010.

Loveraj, a Padma Shri awardee, hails from Uttarakhand and scaled the Everest first in 1998. His second summit was in 2008, followed by 2009 and 2012, and the last one was in 2013.

“It’s a proud moment for family, friends and the nation. No other mountaineer from India scaled Mt Everest six times,” Reena said.

An ONGC spokesperson said three of its employees, Yogendar Garbiyal, N Jagoi and Rahul Jarngal scaled the Everest, making the oil giant one of the first corporates in the world to successfully summit the peak.

“Yogendar and Loveraj summited the peak at 0610 hrs while Jagoi and Rahul achieved the feat at 0745 hours on Saturday,” ONGC said in a note, adding that all the four were back to South Col (Camp 4) at around 11:00 am.

The expedition was flagged off by Union petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan on March 27. The team left for Nepal last month and summited various peaks, including Lobuche East (6,119 m) and climbed till Everest Camp 3 as part of the acclimatisation exercise.

Congratulating the climbers, ONGC CMD Dinesh K Sarraf said the achievement shows the conviction, courage, teamwork and commitment of the colleagues.